ITSMA's Marketing Excellence Awards Honors Top Technology Services and Solutions Marketers

EMC, Accenture, PeopleSoft, Capgemini, and Siebel are among 12 recognized for best practices in marketing technology services and solutions

LEXINGTON, Massachusetts—October 20, 2004—ITSMA, a membership-based organization that specializes in helping companies market and sell services and solutions, announced last night the winners of the seventh annual Marketing Excellence Awards. Focused on the largest and most dynamic sector in the technology industry, the awards recognize industry’s top marketing performers. ITSMA announced the award winners at a ceremony and banquet held at The Charles Hotel in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as part of ITSMA’s 10 th Anniversary Marketing Conference.

“As technology firms put more emphasis on services and solutions as the primary engines for growth, they are realizing the importance of new approaches to demonstrating value to potential customers,” says Dave Munn, president and CEO of ITSMA. “The Marketing Excellence Awards identify marketing organizations that have developed creative and results-oriented programs to help their companies win in the marketplace.”

The awards focus on six areas of marketing: developing new solutions, generating new demand, increasing sales effectiveness, improving the customer experience, enhancing brand and reputation, and building marketing accountability. An international jury of marketing executives and experts determines the awards based on excellence in innovation, program execution, and business results.

2004 Award Winners

Developing New Solutions

• Diamond Award: EMC Services—Accelerating Information Lifecycle Management
• Gold Award: Novell—exteNd secure Enterprise Dashboard

• Diamond Award: Accenture—Client Centric Marketing (Client as a Market of One)
• Gold Award: British Telecom plc—Customer-Centric Marketing

• Diamond Award: PeopleSoft Inc.—One Force, One Goal Support Sales Program
• Gold Award: Avaya Global Services—Delivering Customer Value through Avaya Global Services Maintenance

Improving the Customer Experience

• Diamond Award: Legato Software, a Division of EMC—Customer First: Providing World-Class Support
• Gold Award: AT&T—AT&T BusinessDirect Portfolio

• Diamond Award: Capgemini—The Collaborative Business Experience
• Gold Award: IBM Learning Solutions—A Point of View on the Future of Learning

• Diamond Award: Siebel Systems, Inc.—Improving Marketing Accountability through Sales and Marketing Alignment
• Gold Award: Siemens Medical Solutions USA—Closing the Loop: Building Marketing Accountability and Developing Continuous Marketing Processes

For summaries of the winning programs, visit http://www.itsma.com/news/mea

About ITSMA
ITSMA specializes in helping companies market and sell services and solutions more effectively. As a membership organization, we work with the world's leading technology, communications, and professional services providers to generate increased demand, strengthen customer relationships, and improve brand differentiation. ITSMA members include business leaders such as Accenture, BT, Cisco, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Microsoft, SAP, and Tata Consultancy Services, among others. Our comprehensive research, consulting, and training on topics including ITSMA Account-Based Marketing ^SM, Brand Positioning, and Solutions Development provide the insight and experience companies need to improve business results. ITSMA is based near Boston, and has offices in London and Tokyo. Learn more at www.itsma.com.